‘In summer 2016, the Chilcot report was published, examining whether it was right to send British forces into the Iraq War in 2003. The report addressed the decision-making of the UK government, the military leadership, and the reality of the threat posed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.’

‘Early in 2016, the criminal and civil courts of England and Wales embarked on a modernisation programme aimed at reforming procedures that have survived for centuries. The judges themselves are helping to design the computerised courts of the future. New software will empower litigants to bring and defend cases without the need for lawyers. Judges will be able to decide cases whenever and wherever they choose to open their laptops. But will justice suffer? What if you cannot manage the technology? What if your opponent but not yourself can afford legal advice? Will the courts continue to deliver justice? Might your dispute be decided by a computer? In the first of a series of three annual lectures, the reforms will be monitored as they are planned, tested and launched. Will this project be an IT disaster? Or will it demonstrate that online justice can be just as good as the courts that have served us for hundreds of years.’

‘RBS’s solicitors have expressed disappointment that the Supreme Court will not now consider the issue of who is a client for the purposes of legal advice privilege, after its client dropped a planned appeal against the present “unhelpful and unworkable” position.’

‘New guidance on price promotions has been issued by the UK Chartered Trading Standards Institute to replace the previous Pricing Practices Guide by BIS (now merged into the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy). The guidance applies to all consumer sales of goods, services and digital content, and includes online transactions as well as those in retail premises. Enforcers are likely to allow traders until April 2017 to bring their practices into line with the guidance.’

‘The judges on the front line of low-value personal injury (PI) litigation have added a powerful voice of opposition to the government’s proposed reforms, saying the civil justice system could become “unworkable” as a result.’

‘Our prisons appear to be in a state of permanent crisis but what little we on the outside know about what goes inside our chaotic and violent jails owes little to journalists. Media has been effectively banned by the Government from going into prisons.’

‘David Davis failed to placate Conservative rebels concerned about the status of European Union migrants and other Brexit details, despite publishing a 77-page white paper setting out the government’s plans for leaving the EU.’

‘When Sir Ivan Rogers stepped down in January as the UK’s top official in Brussels, he urged his colleagues to “continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking” and not to be afraid “to speak the truth to those in power.” The implication was clear. The government’s Brexit preparations displayed all these failings but the politicians responsible did not like having this pointed out.’

‘The government’s Brexit strategy faces a fresh legal challenge in the high court on Friday when campaigners argue that parliament must separately legislate to remove the UK from the European Economic Area (EEA) and the single market.’